#THE SARÁÍ ACT, 1867 
______________ 

##ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS 
______________ 

##SECTIONS 

1.  Repeal of Bengal Regulation XIV of 1807, Section 11, clause 5. 
2.  Interpretation clause. 
3.  Notice of this Act to be given to keepers of Saráí.  
4.  Registers of Saráí to be kept. 
5.  Lodgers, &., not to be received in Saráí until registered. 
6.  Magistrate may refuse to refuse to register keeper not producing certificate of character. 
7.  Duties of keepers of Saráí. 
8.  Power to order reports from keepers of Saráí. 
9.  Power to shut up, secure, clear, and clean deserted Saráí. 
10. Taking down or repairing ruinous Saráí. 
11. Sale of materials of ruinous Saráí. 
12. Penalty for permitting Saráí to be filthy or overgrown. 
13. Power for Local Government to make regulations. 
14. Penalty for infringing Act or regulations. 
15. Conviction for third offence to disqualify persons from keeping Saráí. 
16. Nothing in Act to apply to certain Saráí. 
17. Extent of Act. 
18. Short title 

SCHEDULE. 

 
 
#THE SARÁÍ ACT, 1867 

##ACT NO. XXII OF 1867. 
___________ 
##PASSED BY THE GOVERNOR - GENERAL OF INDIA IN COUNCIL.
*(Received the assent of the Governor General on the 15th March 1867.)*

___________ 

*An Act for the regulation of public Saráís and Puraos..*

**Preamble.** – WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for the regulation of public Saráís and Puraos ; It is 
hereby enacted as follows : — 

**1. Repeal of Bengal Regulation XIV of 1807, Section 11, clause 5.**—  Regulation XIV of 1807 of 
the Government of the presidency of Fort William in Bengal, Section 11, clause 5, is hereby repealed so 
far as it applies to public Saráís in the territories to which this Act may from time to time apply.

**2. Interpretation clause.** —  In  this  Act,  unless  there  be  something  repugnant  in  the  subject  or 
context,—

**“Saráí.”** — "Saráí" means any building used for the shelter and accommodation of travellers, and 
includes,  in  any  case  in  which  only  part  of  a  building  is  used  as  a  saráí,  the  part  so  used  of  such 
building. It also includes a purao so far as the provisions of this Act are applicable thereto: 

**“Keeper of a Sarai.”**— "keeper of a saráí" includes the owner and any person having or acting in 
the care or management thereof : 

**“Magistrate of the District.”**— “Magistrate of the District” means the chief officer charged with 
the executive administration of a district in criminal matters whatever may be his designation : 

**Number.**—Words in the singular include the plural, and vice versa ; And in any place in which this 
Act shall operate,  

**“Local  Government”**.—  shall  mean  the  person  administering  Executive  Government  in  such 
place, and shall include a Chief Commissioner and the Commissioner in Sind. 

3. **Notice of this Act to be given to keepers of saráí.** — Within six months after this Act shall come 
into  operation,  the  Magistrate  of  the  District  in  which  any  saráí  to  which  this  Act  shall  apply  may  be 
situate shall, and from time to time thereafter such Magistrate may, give to the keeper of every such saráí 
notice in writing of this Act, by leaving such notice for the keeper at the saráí, and shall by such notice 
require  the  keeper  to  register  the  saráí  as  by  this  Act  provided.  Such  notice  may  be  in  the  form  in  the 
Schedule to this Act annexed or to the like effect. 

4. **Registers of saráís to be kept.**— The Magistrate of the District shall keep a register in which shall 
be  entered  by  such  magistrate  or  such  other  person  as  he  shall  appoint  in  this  behalf,  the  names  and 
residences  of  the  keepers  of  all  saráís  within  his  jurisdiction  and  the  situation  of  every  such  sarai.  No 
charge shall be made for making any such entry. 

5. **Lodgers, &c., not to be received in saráís until registered.**— After one month after the giving of 
such notice to register as by this Act, Act provided the keeper of any saráí or any other person shall not 
receive any lodge or allow any person cattle, sheep, elephant, camel or other animal or any vehicle to halt 
or  be  placed  in  such  until  the  same  and  the  name  and  residence  of  the  keeper  thereof  shall  have  been 
registered as by this Act provided.

6. **Magistrate  may  refuse  to  register  keeper  not  producing  certificate  of  character.**— The 
Magistrate of the District may if he shall think fit refuse to register as the keeper of a saráí person who 
does  not  produce  a  certificate  of  character  in  such  form  and  signed  by  such  person  as  the  State 
Government shall from time to time direct.

7. **Duties of keepers saráís.**—The keeper of a Saráí shall be bound.—

(1)  when  any  person  in  such  Saráí  is  ill  of  any  infectious  or  contagious  disease  or  dies  of  such 
disease to give immediate notice thereof to the nearest police-station. 

(2)  at  all  times  when  requires  by  any  Magistrate  or  any  other  person  duly  authorized  by  the 
Magistrate of the District in this behalf to give him free access to the Saráí and allow him to inspect 
the same or any part thereof; 

(3) to thoroughly cleanse the rooms and verandahs and drains of the Saráí and the wells, tanks or 
other sources from which water is obtained for the persons or animals using it to the satisfaction of and 
so often as shall be required by the Magistrate of the District, or such person as he shall appoint in this 
behalf : 

(4) to remove all noxious vegetation on or near the Saráí, and all tree and branches of tree capable 
of affording to thieves means of entering or leaving the Saráí: 

(5) to keep the gates, walls, fences, roofs and drains of the Saráí in repair :

(6) to provide such number of watchmen as may, in the opinion of the Magistrate of the District, 
subject to such rules as the State Government may prescribe in this behalf, be necessary for the safety 
and protection of persons and animals or vehicles in, halting at or placed in the Saráí: and 

(7)  to  exhibit  a list  of  charges  for  the  Saráí  at  such  place  and in such  form  and  languages as  the 
Magistrate of the District shall from time to time direct. 

8. **Power to order reports from keepers of saráís.**— The keeper of a Saráí shall from time to time, if 
required so to do by an order of the Magistrate of the District served upon him, report, either orally or in 
writing as may be directed by the Magistrate, to such Magistrate or to such person as the Magistrate shall 
appoint, every person who resorted to such Saráí during the preceding day or night. If written reports are 
required  for  any  space  of  time,  exceeding  a  single  day  or  night,  schedules  shall  be  furnished  by  the 
Magistrate of the District to the keeper. The keeper shall from time to time fill up the said schedule with 
information so required, and transmit them to the said Magistrate, in such manner and at such intervals as 
may from time to time be ordered by him. 

9. **power  to  shut  up  secure  clear  and  clean  deserted  saráís.**—  If  any  Saráí  by  reason  of 
abandonment or of disputed ownership shall remain untenanted, and thereby become a resort of idle and 
disorderly persons, or become in a filthy or unwholesome state, or be complained of by any two or more 
of  the  neighbours  as  a  nuisance,  the  Magistrate  of  the  District,  after  due  enquiry,  may  cause  notice  in 
writing to be Vienna to the owner or to the person claiming to be the owner, if he be known and resident 
within  the  district,  and  may  also  cause  such  notice  to  be  put  on  some  conspicuous  part  of  the  Saráí, 
requiring the persons concerned therein, whoever they may be, to secure, enclose, clean or clear the same; 
and if such requisition shall not be complied within eight days, the Magistrate of the District may cause 
the necessary work to be executed, and all expenses thereby incurred shall be paid by the owner of the 
Saráí  and  shall  be  recoverable  like  penalties  under  this  Act,  or,  in  case  of  abandonment  or  disputed 
ownership of the Saráí, by the sale of any material found therein. 

10. **Taking  down  or  repairing  ruinous  saráís.**—  If  a  Saráí  or  any  part  thereof  be  deemed  by  the 
Magistrate of the District to be in a ruinous state, or likely to fall, or in any way dangerous to the persons 
or  animals  lodging  in  or  halting  at  the  Saráí, he  shall  give  notice  in  writing  to the  keeper  of  the  Saráí, 
requiring him forthwith to take down, repair or secure (as the case may be) the Saráí or such part thereof 
as the case may require. If the keeper do not begin to take down, repair or secure the Saráí, or such part as 
aforesaid within three days after such notice, and complete such work with due diligence, the Magistrate 
shall cause all or so much of the Saráí as he shall think necessary to be taken down, repaired or otherwise 
secured. All the expenses so incurred by the Magistrate shall be paid by the keeper of the Saráí, and shall 
be recoverable from him as hereinafter mentioned.

11. **Sale  of  materials  of  ruinous  saráís.**—  If any such Saráí or any part thereof be taken down by 
virtue of the powers aforesaid, the Magistrate of the District may sell the materials thereof, or so much of 
the same as shall be taken down under the provisions of the last preceding section, and apply the proceeds 
of such sale in payment of the expenses incurred, and shall restore the overplus (if any) arising from such 
sale  to  the  owner  of  such  saráí  on  demand,  and  may  recover  the  deficiency  (if  any)  as  if  the  amount 
thereof were a penalty under this Act. 

12. **penalty for  permitting  saráís  to  be filthy  or  overgrown.**—  Whoever, being the keeper of any 
Sarai, suffers the same to be in a filthy and unwholesome state, or overgrown with vegetation, or after the 
expiration of two days from the time of his receiving notice in writing from the Magistrate of the District 
to cleanse or clear the same, or after he shall have been convicted of suffering the same to be in such state 
or so overgrown as aforesaid, shall allow the same to continue in such state, or so overgrown, shall be 
liable to the penalties provided in section 14 of this Act:

**Proviso.** — Provided that the Magistrate of the District may, in lieu of enforcing such daily penalty, 
enter on and cleanse or clear the said Saráí, and the expense incurred by the Magistrate in respect thereof 
shall  be  paid  to  him  by  the  keeper,  and  shall  be  recoverable  as  by  this  Act  provided  in  the  case  of 
penalties 

13. **Power for Local Government to make regulations.**— The Local Government may from time to 
time make regulations for the better attainment of the objects of this Act, provided that such rules be not 
inconsistent with this Act or with any other law for the time being in force, and may from time to time 
repeal,  alter  and  add  to  the  same.  All  regulations  made  under  this  Act  and  all  repeals  thereof,  and 
alterations and additions thereto, shall be published in the Local official Gazette. 

14. **Penalty  for  infringing  Act  or  regulations.**—  If  the keeper of a saráí offend against any of the 
provisions  of  this  Act  or  any  of  the  regulations  made  in  pursuance  of this  Act, he  shall for  every  such 
offence be liable on conviction before any Magistrate to a penalty not exceeding twenty rupees, and to a 
further  penalty  not  exceeding  one  rupee  a  day  for  every  day  during  which  the  offence  continues  : 
Provided always that this Act shall not exempt any person from any penalty or other liability to which he 
may  be  subject,  irrespective  of  this  Act.  All  penalties  imposed  under  this  Act  may  be  recovered  in  the 
same manner as fines may be recovered under Section 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 

15. **Conviction for third offence to disqualify persons from keeping saráís.**— Where a keeper of a 
sarai is convicted of a third offence under this Act, he shall not afterwards act as keeper of a Saráí without 
the licence in writing of the Magistrate of the District, who may either withhold such licence or grant the 
same on such terms and conditions as he may think fit.

16. **Nothing in Act to apply to certain saráís.**— No part of this Act, except section 8, shall apply to 
any  Saráí  which  may  be  under  the  direct  management  of  the  Local  Government  or  of  any  Municipal 
Committee. 

17. **Extent  of  Act.**—  This  Act  shall  in  the  first  instance  extend  only  to  the  territories  under  the 
government of the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces of the Presidency of Fort William in 
Bengal.

**Power to Governor General in Council to extend this Act.**— But it shall be lawful for the Local 
Government, by notification in the Local Gazette, to extend this Act, mutatis mutandis, to any other part 
of the territories which are or may be vested in Her Majesty or Her Successors by the Statute 21 & 22 
Vic.,  cap.  106  (An  Act  for  the  better  Government  of  India),  except  the  towns  of  Calcutta,  Madras  and 
Bombay, and the Settlement of Prince of Wales’ Island, Singapore and Malacca.

18. Short title. — This Act may be called “The saráís’ Act, 1867.” 

___________ 

 

##SCHEDULE. 

###FORM OF NOTICE 

Take notice that on the day of 1867, an Act called “The saráís’ Act, 1867,” was passed, and that before 
the day of 18 you, being the keeper of a saráís [or Purao] within *here state the district over 
which  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Magistrate  giving  notice  extends*  must  have  your  saráís  [or  Purao] 
registered, and that the register is to be kept at *here state where the register is to be kept*, and that if you 
do  not  have  your  saráís  [or  Purao]  so  registered,  you  will  be  liable  to  a  penalty  not  exceeding  twenty 
Rupees, and to a further penalty not exceeding one Rupee a day for every day during which the offence 
continues,  and  that  on  your  applying  to  *here  give  the  name  and  address  of  the  person  to  keep  the 
register* he will register your saráís [or Purao] free of all charge to you.

Dated the        day of         18.